Time to Wake Up: While We Were Out: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (September 2017) – with Transcript

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Thank You mr. president I am here to
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deliver my time to wake up speech which
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I do every week that the Senate is in
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session and we’ve been out of session
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for a few weeks so there’s a fair amount
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to talk about that happened while we
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were gone one of the first things was a
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new study in Rhode Island my home state
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of Rhode Island Rhode Island is a
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coastal state and we have considerable
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worries about sea level rise and we have
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a state Coastal Resources Management
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Council that has done what is probably
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the best modeling anywhere in the
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country
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of the effects of sea level rise and the
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risk of ocean storms on our shores and
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in conjunction with them there has been
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a report from the rhode island division
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of planning this is the state government
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which has identified roads and bridges
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that are most likely to be underwater as
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the tides climb higher and as waves push
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further inland the state’s 10 most
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vulnerable roads to sea level rise our
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hope Street in Bristol which everybody
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knows a beautiful historic Street
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Memorial Boulevard in Newport Wampanoag
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Trail in Barrington canonicus Avenue in
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Jamestown County Road north in
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Barrington North Road in Jamestown
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County Road in Barrington Beach Street
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in Narragansett Main Street and Warren
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and state highway 24 south in Tiverton
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throw in storm surge on top of sea level
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rise and the ten most vulnerable roads
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become County Road North in Barrington
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Phillips Street in North Kingstown
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America’s Cup Ave in Newport
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the route 138 West on-ramp in New Port
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Hope Street in Bristol again highway 24
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north and Portsmouth Centerville Road in
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Warwick Narragansett Avenue and
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Narragansett Main Street in Warren and
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route 138 West in Jamestown the letter
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goes on the report goes on to identify
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the ten most vulnerable bridges to
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sea-level rise and the ten most
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vulnerable bridges to a combination of
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sea level rise and storm surge overall
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Warwick Narragansett Newport Barrington
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and Providence are our top five
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municipalities most vulnerable to
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climate change-related road damage so
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colleagues when I come here to talk
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about this this is not some hypothetical
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liberal concern my Coastal Resources
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Management Council in my home state is
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predicting nine feet nine vertical feet
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of sea level rise by the end of the
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century as the presiding officer knows
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Rhode Island is not a huge state we
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don’t have a lot to give back to the
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ocean nine feet of sea level rise is
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potentially catastrophic and when my
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state Division of Planning is
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highlighting the roads and bridges that
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we’re gonna lose to sea level rise and
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to storm surge don’t expect me to sit
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idly by so there’s a larger context of
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course for all of this I’m pretty Rhode
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Island centric but boy are we seeing a
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lot going on let me start with what’s
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going on out west we have an
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extraordinary wildfire situation
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happening in the American West wildfires
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are reporting reading a new story here
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wildfires burned across hundreds of
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thousands of acres in the American and
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Canadian West this week
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fueled by scorching temperatures that
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are breaking heat and fire records
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across the region in California at least
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15 cities have seen record-breaking heat
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the state is experienced its hottest
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summer on record
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San Francisco hit 160
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Greaves over the weekend breaking its
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previous high ever by three full degrees
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by the end of the day Tuesday they were
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at least 81 large fires blazing across
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1.5 million acres of the u.s. west from
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Colorado to California and north to
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Washington these unprecedented extreme
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events are exactly the types of events
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that are more likely due to the global
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warning that’s already occurred say the
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scientists studies find that a warmed
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global atmosphere with increasingly
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clear human fingerprints will continue
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driving a potent mix of heat and dryness
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that’s projected to escalate in the West
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the climate scientists at UCLA says
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that’s not a future projection but an
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observational reality and that’s
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something we expect to increase in the
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future when we get these extremes he
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says there’s a human fingerprint the
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increased occurrence of severe heat and
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the role of global warming on the
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occurrence of severe heat that’s already
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happening said a Stanford scientific
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research and this is not a fluke
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nine of the ten worst fire seasons in
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the past 50 years have all happened
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since 2000 and 2015 was the worst fire
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season in US history surpassing 10
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million acres burned for the first time
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ever recorded so far this year wildfires
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in the US are at 7.8 million acres and
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the fire season is far from over
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researchers have shown that human
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induced climate change accounted for
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about half the observed increase in fuel
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aridity forest dryness that is setting
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off these fires in the western US since
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1977 1979 and that this had nearly
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doubled the area of the US West affected
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by forest fires since 1984
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the conclusion we know that global
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warming has already increased the
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probability of unprecedented high
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temperatures in the western US included
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in California and we know we know the
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scientists say with high confidence that
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continued global warming will continue
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to intensify those increases last week
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in Montana a 20 square mile blaze burned
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the historic Sperry Chalet a hotel and
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dining room built in 1914 only reachable
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by trail been there more than a hundred
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years but this is the fire that burned
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it down this means a lot out in Glacier
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National Park it’s hard to think about
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the magnitude of what’s happened the
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National Park Conservancy executive
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director Doug Mitchell said one of the
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Western fires even jumped the Columbia
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River to burn across into Washington the
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Eagle Creek fire so as the news said in
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Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge a blaze
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known as the Eagle Creek fire has jumped
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the river the Columbia River that is
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into the state of Washington
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creating dramatic and dangerous scenes
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another news report called that call
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this a devastating summer in which an
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area larger than a certain state has
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burned I hate to have Rhode Island be
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used as a unit of measure but that’s
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what they said an area larger than Rhode
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Island has burned this summer and
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they’re looking not just at the loss of
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Sperry Chalet but potentially losing
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Lake McDonald Lodge a loss that would
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say it says the historian who’s worked
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at the lodge for years be unimaginably
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devastating some of the most remarkable
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buildings anywhere in the United States
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and they are an integral part of the
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glacier experience in the glacier
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tradition and there are there burned or
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at risk of burning and if you’re in
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those western states it’s not just in
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the high
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dry forests if you go down to the oceans
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climate change it’s whacking away at
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them to the Oregon and Washington razor
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clam fisheries are currently closed due
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to high levels of domoic acid
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domoic acid is a toxin that is produced
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by algae the algae pseudo-nitzschia and
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algae are associated with climate change
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for instance a record-breaking red tide
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in 2015 was likely linked to climate
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change and we’re gonna see a lot more of
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that in the future now of course the dry
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part of what’s happening in our climate
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has really been drowned out by what
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we’re seeing on the wet part the New
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York Times recently ran an article
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saying that climate change doesn’t cause
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extreme events it amplifies them on the
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climate side of risk we have unambiguous
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evidence that the hazards are changing
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our emissions of heat-trapping gases
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have already increased the likelihood
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and severity of heat waves extreme
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rainfall and storm surges scientists can
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now even evaluate how much climate
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change has increased the odds of
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individual extreme events including
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rainfall and flooding and we certainly
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understand the mechanisms but simply a
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warmer atmosphere can hold more water
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increasing the potential for heavy
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downpours storm surge now occurs on top
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of sea level rise increasing flooding
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risk and we know by the law of thermal
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expansion why the Seas rise when they
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warm and we measure that they’re warming
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with a very complicated device called a
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thermometer and warmer oceans in turn
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produce more intense hurricanes we know
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that as well as has occurred in the
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North Atlantic and the Gulf the article
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continues that unprecedented is
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increasingly the norm and it notes up to
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8 feet of sea level rise as possible in
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this century Rhode Island is in a unique
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place
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so we’re riding a little higher than
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average and we’re looking at potential
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9 feet of sea-level rise harvey has been
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an astonishing monster of a storm was
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described in one article as 9 trillion
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gallons of water a hydraulic cube over
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downtown Houston 4 miles square and 2
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miles high and then the author said the
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cube doubled to become the most extreme
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rain event in American history
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Harvey by the way is the 3rd 500 year
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flood in the Houston area in the past
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three years it dumped enough water in
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southeastern Texas to equal almost 20
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times the daily discharge of the
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Mississippi River
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so while the wildfires are burning out
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west this astonishing set of deluge as
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is happening elsewhere land temperatures
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according to NOAA we’re the hottest
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they’ve ever been in 1651 months of
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record keeping July also marked 384
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months since the last colder than
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average month in NASA’s database 384
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months since we had a month that was
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colder than average with July
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well warmer than average the last three
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consecutive years 2014 2015 and 2016
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each set a new global record for warmth
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according to NOAA 2016 Politico writes
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has been confirmed as the planets
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hottest year with the National Oceanic
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and Atmospheric Administration
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documenting record-breaking global
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warming trends of 2016 the observed
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outcomes of swiftly rising temperatures
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include the highest sea levels ever
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recorded extremes and rain cycles
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and declines in global ice and snow
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cover with last year the third in a row
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breaking global temperature records
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several markers such as land and ocean
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temperatures sea level and greenhouse
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gas concentrations in the atmosphere
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broke records set just one year prior
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the NOAA report said the long term
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climate change is like riding an
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escalator over time riding it up and on
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top of that things like El Nino and La
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Nina are like jumping up and down on
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that escalator one of the NOAA
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scientists said so that’s what we’re
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seeing the underlying trend of climate
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change raising temperatures with El Nino
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and La Nina creating a variation like
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jumping up and down on that escalator
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greenhouse gas concentrations are now
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higher than ever ever recorded global
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surface temperatures are now the highest
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on record sea levels are the highest
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they’ve ever been since record-keeping
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began precipitation cycles are becoming
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more extreme Antarctic sea ice levels
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are lower than ever recorded alpine
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glaciers have declined for 37
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consecutive years and there were more
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tropical cyclones something is going on
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and that well-known far-left liberal
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outlet USA Today had its editorial board
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say the following could proof grow any
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more powerful that humanity is
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responsible for a dangerously warming
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planet it referenced a quadrennial
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National Climate Assessment in which
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scientists from 13 federal agencies
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found that a rapid rise in temperatures
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since the 1980s in the United States
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represents the warmest period in 1,500
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years it quotes the report
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many lines of evidence demonstrate that
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human activities especially emission of
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greenhouse gases are primarily
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responsible there are no alternative
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explanations do you hear that there are
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no alternative explanations and it keeps
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coming down there was an article that
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came out while we are away on the great
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flood of 2016 in Louisiana the worst
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rainstorm in a rainy States history the
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article called it in some places more
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than two feet of rain fell over three
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days and as the article goes research
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has shown that it was clearly linked to
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climate change there were two separate
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teams of scientists that linked
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Louisiana’s Great Flood with climate
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change and the state’s own meteorologist
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a gentleman named Barry came a professor
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at Louisiana State University said that
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aspects of the August storm were
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consistent with climate change and that
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both of the climate studies so far have
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shown it likely that climate change
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likely had its fingerprints on that
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Louisiana disaster
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indeed in Louisiana the state is
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mounting a massive battle against rising
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seas as well as floods along the coast
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rising waters and escalating flood
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insurance rates the article says will
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drive thousands of families further
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inland this is what the state predicts
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leaving behind these families leaving
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behind homes they’ve known for
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generations
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leaving behind places that have
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fundamentally shaped their identities as
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one of the Louisianans living in the
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area in question said this is the first
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time that I can remember that a group
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came in and said it’s not going to be
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alright
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over the next two generations flooding
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in Louisiana along the marshes and
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coasts will happen at an alarming scale
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the article says as the twin challenges
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of sinking land and rising seas overtake
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ancestral homes at breakneck speed in 50
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years the state estimates Terrebonne
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Parish whose name means Good Earth in
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the French that some of its residents
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still speak will lose 41 percent of its
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land mass areas are obviously going to
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lose their tax basis the report says as
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rising waters and increasing flood
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insurance rates drive most locals out
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now the Louisiana planners the article
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said had a bit of a leg up since the
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environmental changes here the article
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says have been so Swift that many
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residents have seen land lost in their
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own lifetimes when you’re seeing it
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happen before your eyes it’s not so easy
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to deny it
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and indeed it’s affecting local markets
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new gated communities in the area
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advertised higher elevations on bright
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advertising banners facing the highway
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in Louisiana what had been the worst
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case scenario for land loss when the
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Legislature passed its 2012 version of
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the master plan became the best case
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scenario in the latest version approved
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by the legislature in June
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thanks to updated sea level rise
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estimates so we’re in Louisiana we’re in
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a republican-controlled legislature they
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pass a
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master plan to address flooding in 2012
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that master plan is based on a worst has
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a worst case scenario and just in the
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five years since then that worst case
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scenario the legislature has now updated
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to become a best case scenario with the
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worst case scenario far far exceeding
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what they anticipated just as recently
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as 2012 climate change and water
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management practices could significantly
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alter the magnitude and variability of
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extreme flooding events causing flooding
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to become non-stationary said the
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article deciphering deluge is we’ve got
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to come up with new ways of looking at
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how to cope with sea-level rise offshore
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storms major tropical storms downpours
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and riverine flooding and right now our
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colleague bill Nelson has left us this
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afternoon after the vote to go back down
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to Florida because hurricane Irma is
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steaming towards his State Hurricane
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Irma is the most powerful storm ever
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recorded in the Atlantic Ocean
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experts say our strength is a result of
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unusually warm water for that part of
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the Atlantic guess what global warming
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does raises ocean temperatures you know
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how much of the excess heat created by
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global warming has actually gone into
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the oceans about 93 percent virtually
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all of it thank goodness for the oceans
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without them we’d already be baking in
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climate change
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93% went into the oceans but of course
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that raises ocean temperatures and on go
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the storms
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if OMA stays on the forecast track and
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reaches the Florida Straits the water
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there is warm enough
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that the already intense storm could
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become much worse with wind speeds
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potentially reaching 225 miles per hour
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warned Kerry Emanuel an MIT meteorology
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professor for the Florida Keys if you
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were to create the worst-case scenario
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that is what we are looking at Monroe
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County Emergency Operations Center
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director Martin Center fit told CBS
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Miami even tropical storm my amp Emily
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some time ago dumped enough rain on
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Miami Beach
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seven inches of rainfall over several
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hours that the pumps that are meant to
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drain the area went offline for nearly
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an hour because the power was
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interrupted the mayor tomas Regalado
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used the flooding to make a case for a
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proposed 400 million dollar bond
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initiative to help pump the water out we
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have infrastructure demands that come
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from this disaster as well so a pretty
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good summary came again from an article
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in New York Times and editorial piece
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what’s going on
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well first hurricanes arise from warm
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waters and the Gulf of Mexico has warmed
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by two to four degrees Fahrenheit above
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the long-term average the result is more
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intense storms there is a general
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consensus that the frequency of high
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category 3 4 & 5 hurricanes should
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increase as the climate warms says the
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same scientist at MIT second as the air
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warms warm air holds more water vapor so
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the storms dumped more rain that’s why
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there’s been a big increase in heavy
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downpours nine of the top ten years for
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heavy downpours in the United States
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have occurred since 1990 climate change
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played a role and intensify
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the winds and rainfall associated with
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hurricane Harvey says Charles green the
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climate scientist at Cornell
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last year was the third in a row to set
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a record high for global average service
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temperature the ten years of greatest
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loss of sea ice are all in the last
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decade Houston has suffered three five
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hundred year floods in the last three
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years and so the author asks the
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question why can’t we all respect
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scientists predictions about our cooking
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of our only planet how is it that we
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don’t listen to the scientists on this
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particularly right here in this room in
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this chamber well there are two very
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interesting articles that came out while
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we’re away that addressed this one is
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about a phony group called the cooler
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heads coalition whose job is to call
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climate science a hoax and denounce
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environmentalists as global warming
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alarmists
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they write letters blast out emails
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pressure lawmakers sponsor seminars
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appear on television that even made a
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documentary movie this article in The
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Washington Post told the story behind
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this coalition obviously the cohort
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coalition that cool this cooler heads
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crowd it is paid for the cooler heads
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have received more than eleven million
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dollars in donations over the years from
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coal and oil companies oh no they’ve
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taken in tens of millions from nonprofit
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foundations such as those controlled by
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the wealthy Koch brothers guess what
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more fossil fuel money the Koch brothers
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run a fossil fuel empire the cooler
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heads coalition are allied with industry
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trade groups and public relations
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companies and lobbyists all of whom are
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working to influence public debate
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about global warming climate scientists
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said there is no doubt about the reality
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of climate change and its consequences
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including melting polar ice caps rising
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sea levels and the intensification of
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storms Benjamin santur is a scientist at
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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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we’re pretty proud of our National
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Laboratories and we usually don’t think
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that people who are there are idiots or
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are fooling us or are parts of a hoax
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dr. santur says oh by the way he also
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received a mark Arthur foundation genius
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award he told The Washington Post that
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this cooler heads outfit is attempting
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to turn back the clock on knowledge and
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science the history of this is rooted in
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a complex influence campaign that began
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in support of tobacco the tobacco plan
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foreshadowed the tactics that cooler
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heads members would soon employ on
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climate change first millions in
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contributions from affected industries
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often laundered through front groups and
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through foundations the same array of
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donors the Washington Post reports would
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help finance charities behind the fight
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against climate science they took the
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skills they learned denying the health
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harms of tobacco and moved that same
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technology of propaganda influence and
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politicking into climate change the
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Competitive Enterprise Institute became
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the lead group in this cooler heads
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coalition taking over management of the
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coalition joined by groups such as the
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Heartland Institute the Heartland
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Institutes a really classy group they’re
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the ones who put up billboards comparing
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climate scientists to the Unabomber
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that’s the quality of debate we get out
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of the Heartland Institute and Americans
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for Prosperity is another influential
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profit organization which is a front for
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guess whom the Koch brothers and Koch
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Industries ie the fossil fuel industry
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they got particularly cranked up by the
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Kyoto Protocol and the story continues
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the energy industry went on a spending
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spree to thwart Kyoto devoting at least
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13 million dollars to public relations
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and information campaigns in 1997 the
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cooler heads coalition was in effect a
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loose confederation of those groups with
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the declared mission of countering what
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they call the myths myths of global
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warming in early 1998 this cooler heads
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group met with energy industry
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executives and lobbyists in closed-door
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meetings at the American Petroleum
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Institute and began to soak up more
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money and here’s what the plan was I’m
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quoting from the story in the post one
29:56
former cooler heads member who spoke on
30:00
the condition of anonymity because of a
30:04
fear of a punitive backlash that’s how
30:09
classy this group is they enforce
30:13
against each other this former member
30:17
said the coalition’s mission was to
30:20
simulate a cacophony of voices against
30:26
climate change science there’s a whole
30:30
web the former member said out to do
30:36
this the Exxon Mobil Foundation of
30:41
course had given millions to cooler
30:44
heads members a 2009 IRS filing for the
30:49
Competitive Enterprise Institute the
30:51
group that took over the coalition
30:53
managed it inadvertently made public a
30:56
filing that disclosed their funding from
30:58
to coal mining companies Ohio based
31:01
Murray energy and Richmond based Massey
31:04
Energy contributions to the Competitive
31:07
Enterprise Institute during the Obama
31:09
administration
31:10
rose to seven point six million dollars
31:13
in 2014 and as the article continues
31:20
Competitive Enterprise Institute and the
31:21
cooler head so called were just the tip
31:25
of the spear between 2003 and 2010
31:29
energy companies corporations
31:31
conservative foundations contributed
31:34
hundreds of millions to that web 291
31:39
nonprofit think tanks educational groups
31:41
and associations involved in the fight
31:45
against global warming regulations to
31:50
put it mildly as the expert who
31:52
chronicled this concluded and I quote
31:54
him this is a large-scale political
31:59
effort we have one last report from
32:03
inside that large-scale political effort
32:08
this is the firsthand voice of an in the
32:15
individual his name is Jerry Taylor
32:17
here’s what he says I used to be the
32:22
number two person at the Cato Institute
32:25
the Cato Institute is one of this
32:27
constellation of right-wing groups that
32:30
foment and support climate denial and
32:33
receives money from fossil fuel
32:36
interests he continues I was responsible
32:40
for building our resistance to climate
32:45
action I discovered that a lot of the
32:51
scientific narratives I was offering
32:54
were really dodgy one of the people I
33:03
trusted most he discovered was in the
33:11
business of consciously misrepresenting
33:15
the debate this really rattled me he
33:21
goes on once I started
33:24
King closely at a lot of the convenient
33:27
plausible talking points I was offering
33:31
they began to fall apart I then turned
33:39
to look at economic arguments he says
33:46
this is pretty hard it’s a very
33:49
difficult thing to find that you cannot
33:54
trust any of the scientists that are
33:57
being offered to resist climate action
34:02
this is the guy who used to lead the
34:06
anti climate action effort of the Cato
34:09
Institute saying it is a very difficult
34:13
thing to find that you cannot trust any
34:15
of the scientists that are being offered
34:19
to resist climate action and then and
34:24
then the economists that you have been
34:28
relying on to put cautious remarks about
34:32
cost-benefit are now all walking away
34:37
from the game he goes on to say we got
34:43
to the point where you could not find an
34:46
academic economist who studies climate
34:50
change who argued against climate action
34:54
not one single one
35:05
so here’s his conclusion believe it or
35:13
not he says libertarians and
35:16
conservatives and Republicans were put
35:22
on this earth with the perfect answer to
35:27
climate change harnessing markets and
35:32
price signals via a carbon tax or a
35:37
carbon tax like mechanism to reduce
35:40
greenhouse gas emission were perfectly
35:45
placed to do that he says so what is it
35:52
he asks that keeps Republicans from
35:56
coming to the conclusion that climate
35:59
change doesn’t just threaten polar bears
36:01
in the Arctic it threatens the global
36:04
economy it threatens capital flows it
36:08
threatens capitalism it’s not the
36:14
Republican base let me tell you he says
36:18
there is poll after poll survey after
36:21
survey showing that most Republicans
36:23
believe in doing something about climate
36:28
he continues what prevents the
36:31
Republican politicians from acting is
36:33
that there are significant members in
36:37
the Republican Party coalition who are
36:40
denialist demanders they’re not just
36:45
climate deniers themselves they are
36:47
denialist demanders and they have
36:51
outsized influence in the party
36:57
he says the koch controlled and by that
37:01
I mean the Koch brothers and Koch
37:03
Industries the koch controlled Tea Party
37:06
movement has held the GOP by the throat
37:13
and by the way if you were
37:19
somebody who was trying to find some
37:21
comfort in the widely reported
37:26
phenomenon that 97% of climate
37:31
scientists conclude the global warming
37:35
is real and problematic for the planet
37:38
and has been exacerbated by human
37:40
activity if you are comforting yourself
37:43
that may be the 3% were right it’s a
37:47
really smart place to place your bet for
37:49
the future of the planet and our economy
37:52
and our standing in the world is on
37:53
those 3% not take the 97 percent bet no
37:57
take the 3% bet if that’s the way you
38:00
were thinking you got bad news
38:06
researchers tried to replicate the
38:10
results of those 3 percent of papers and
38:14
guess what they found biased faulty
38:18
results Katharine Hayhoe is an
38:23
atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech
38:25
University she said this every single
38:30
one of those analyses had an error in
38:35
their assumptions methodology or
38:40
analysis that when corrected brought
38:45
their results into line with the
38:48
scientific consensus so if you were
38:52
hoping that that 3% was somehow gonna
38:55
bail you out from having to face this
38:57
crisis that just blew up there is no 3%
39:05
broadly the report on this says there
39:09
were three main errors in the papers
39:12
denying climate change
39:13
many had cherry-picked the results some
39:18
applied inappropriate curve fitting to
39:22
try to step away from the data until you
39:25
could match it to the curve of your
39:28
choosing and some
39:32
this is my favorite sometimes the papers
39:35
just ignored physics altogether so it’s
39:44
been quite a month with the West ablaze
39:48
Houston underwater most powerful storm
39:52
ever measured in the Atlantic headed our
39:53
way heat and rain and other measures
39:58
breaking records year after year after
40:00
year multiple departments of government
40:03
aligning to warn us and how does the
40:07
Trump administration respond well the
40:11
Energy Department asks scientists to
40:13
remove the word climate change from a
40:15
grant proposal I have been asked to
40:19
contact you to update the wording in
40:23
your proposed abstract to remove words
40:26
such as global warming or climate change
40:28
the email says not just one fluke in
40:34
March Politico reported that staff at
40:37
the Department of Energy were told not
40:41
to use the terms climate change
40:43
emissions reduction or Paris agreement
40:47
the department put out a power grid
40:50
study that has been long delayed and in
40:52
the power grid study the words climate
40:57
change never appeared wherever they were
41:01
in earlier drafts they got scrubbed the
41:04
only reference to climate is a reference
41:09
to rescinding energy and climate related
41:14
policies the EPA has been scrubbing the
41:21
word climate change from its website it
41:23
removed its climate change page and then
41:28
got hammered with a series of Freedom of
41:31
Information Act requests as to what’s
41:32
going on with that so they quickly
41:34
scrambled and published an archived
41:36
version but buried it back in the
41:40
website the Department of Interior
41:45
has also removed discussions of the
41:47
effects of global warming from several
41:50
of its pages the Department of
41:53
Agriculture has emails showing how staff
41:59
in their Natural Resources Conservation
42:01
Service were coached by managers to
42:04
avoid the term climate change and
42:08
instead use other language that’s where
42:15
we are all of those facts the motive
42:20
behind it the fingerprints of the fossil
42:23
fuel industry the confessions by
42:28
participants in those schemes and where
42:34
are we in this room silence nobody will
42:39
talk about it because the power of the
42:41
fossil fuel industry is so strong the
42:44
threats are so blood-curdling that
42:47
nobody dares we cannot have a grown-up
42:51
factual discussion about climate change
42:53
in this building either
42:55
and of course over in the Trump
42:58
administration they’ve completely thrown
43:00
in the towel to the fossil fuel industry
43:01
and now we’re hoping to dodge the
43:03
problem by forbidding people from using
43:06
the word climate change it is pathetic
43:09
mr. president and with that I yield the
43:13
floor

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Food for Thought:

Based on 2016 IMF Report the fossil fuel industry extracted $700B (billion) in annual tax payer subsidies. They paid $117 million in campaign contributions and they have 720 lobbyists in Washington, D.C. SOURCE